Ecovacs Deebot T8 Ozmo Robot Vacuum Cleaner Review

This robot can vacuum, mop, and see power cords

Using marketing jargon that touts cameras, better sensors, and more powerful motors, robot vacuum companies make it hard for consumers to suss out what their machines can actually do when it comes to sucking stuff up. However, the front-facing camera of the Ecovacs Deebot Ozmo T8(available at Amazon for $799.99) combined with Artificial Intelligence and Visual Interpretation (AIVI) truly gives it an edge over its competitors. The T8 features object recognition, meaning it can see and understand what it’s looking at. When you combine its ability to avoid power cords and house slippers with its powerful suction, you get one of the best smart robot vacuums on the market.

Pros

Excellent navigation

Seamless mop and vacuum

Robust app

Cons

Average cleaning

Expensive

During testing, the T8 delighted us with its ability to avoid obstacles, stream video to our phones, and provide interactive virtual maps of our testing area. A superior robot, the T8 lags behind in the cleaning department. Yes, it nimbly navigated around our testing course’s obstacles, but it also overlooked some of the debris we left out.

What we like

It’s the smartest robot around

The Ecovacs Deebot T8 uses a system that quickly scans its surroundings.

Ecovacs combines the last five years' worth of technological innovations in robot vacuums into a single model.

The T8 can make virtual maps and send them to your smartphone. While many other robot vacuums can do the same, few do as accurately and quickly as the T8, which uses time-of-flight cameras rather than the more common Lidar systems. For example, the T8 mapped our lab in a single test run; this feat took the Shark IQ R101AE a dozen cleaning cycles to do.

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If you own an older Ecovacs, like the Ozmo 930, you’ll have to download a more recent app to sync to the T8.

The maps also allow you to target certain areas of your home. For example, you can mark off areas like your kitchen or foyer and tell the T8 to clean a specific area. It’s perfect for when the kids come home and you realize they didn’t clean their shoes on the doormat. This is a huge improvement over the older method of closing doors and placing down barrier devices like magnetic strips or lighthouses.

Credit: Reviewed

This screenshot is taken from the 930, but it shows how you can create virtual boundaries in the app.

Finally, you can stream what your T8 sees on your phone. In this way, it becomes like a mobile security camera. The wide-angle lens gives you a pretty good view and lets you check to see if doors are open and if your pets are doing OK. We’ve seen this feature on other robot vacuums, but it’s nice to see that Ecovacs is checking up on what competitors are offering and keeping up with the best of them.

It takes the hassle out of mopping and vacuuming

Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

The T8 can seamlessly transition from hardwood flooring to carpet.

During past testing, robot vacuum-mop combos always gave us trouble because users need to fill a water tank and attach a microfiber cloth. But, the T8 is intelligent enough to recognize the difference between flooring that needs to be mopped and that which needs to be vacuumed through a combination of visual recognition and sensors.

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It can see better than any other robot vacuum

Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

The T8's forward-facing camera allows it to navigate by sight.

The T8’s AIVI technology represents the next big step in robot vacuum evolution. With older robot vacuums, you had to clear the room of obstructions: power cords, furniture, and other small objects.

Now, the T8’s forward-facing camera allows it to “see” common objects and avoid them. You won’t come home to find this robot caught atop a nest of power cords.

What we don’t like

AIVI is a great step, but no leap

Credit: Reviewed / Jonathan Chan

While AIVI technology is a great step in robot vacuum technology, most of the features on the T8 are already found on other robot vacuums.

While AIVI is a great step for Ecovacs, it’s not a huge leap. The technology recognizes larger objects like slippers, power cords, and table legs. There is a limitation that the T8 can’t recognize anything smaller than two millimeters tall.

Ability to get to dirt isn’t that great

One trend we’ve noticed over the years of testing robot vacuums is that robot vacuums either navigate well or they clean well. The T8 avoided furniture legs and obstacles on our course like a champ, but it missed a few spots along the way.

On average, the T8 picked up 9.5 grams of dirt, just shy of our expectation of 10 grams per run.

Accordingly, other robot vacuums of its caliber, like the Neato D7 and the iRobot i7+ outperformed the T8.

What are users saying?

At the time of our review, we only counted a handful of user reviews. At Best Buy, the T8 scores a 4.7 stars out of 5 by 18 users who like how quickly and efficiently the T8 cleans their floors. One user observed the setup was more complicated than it needed to be.

Should you buy this robot vacuum?

If you’re looking to upgrade from an Ecovacs 930 or 950, the T8 is one to get. However, for the average buyer, this is a wait-to-get model. The Ecovacs Ozmo T8 AIVI is expensive, but you’re getting a unique model with features all its own: a vacuum, mop, and security camera all rolled into one. Other companies will likely spawn similar features soon. People who are more interested in a simple robot vacuum should check out our roundup of affordable models.

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Meet the tester

Jonathan Chan currently serves as the Lab Manager at Reviewed. If you clean with it, it's likely that Jon oversees its testing. Since joining the Reviewed in 2012, Jon has helped launch the company's efforts in reviewing laptops, vacuums, and outdoor gear. He thinks he's a pretty big deal. In the pursuit of data, he's plunged his hands into freezing cold water, consented to be literally dragged through the mud, and watched paint dry. Jon demands you have a nice day.

Checking our work.

We use standardized and scientific testing methods to scrutinize every product and provide you with objectively accurate results. If you’ve found different results in your own research, email us and we’ll compare notes. If it looks substantial, we’ll gladly re-test a product to try and reproduce these results. After all, peer reviews are a critical part of any scientific process.